


Flowers in Bloom

by Anonymous



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: A Smol child, Gen, Magic, Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas-centric, Yukhei is a sweetheart, a Happy child, who just wants to be accepted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-13
Updated: 2019-03-13
Packaged: 2019-11-17 14:38:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18100478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Bright eyes peer out from the sewer under him, and Yukhei makes sure to keep Mark (who he’s placed at his side since the intersection) distracted, making sure he doesn’t look down.He’s still not sure what to do, but until Yukhei decides, he’s determined to keep Mark and the rest of his members away from everything.





	Flowers in Bloom

Yukhei curses himself, swears under his breath.

He should have realized this would happen.

His mama did always warn him of the consequences, but he’d thought that everything would be fine.

Apparently not.

Bright eyes peer out from the sewer under him, and Yukhei makes sure to keep Mark (who he’s placed at his side since the intersection) distracted, making sure he doesn’t look down.

He’s still not sure what to do, but until Yukhei decides, he’s determined to keep Mark and the rest of his members away from everything.

* * *

The 127 members, along with Ten-hyung, Kun-ge, and him are outside, enjoying the short break they’ve gotten before the end of year performances. All of them had gone to the park near their dorms, the older hyungs eventually playing a game of football while Yukhei, Mark, and Haechan layed on the grass to sleep.

Well, Mark and Haechan had fallen asleep. Yukhei was content to stay awake, observing his hyungs, and then the rest of the park around him. He always felt more peaceful in parks, near nature. It reminded him of Hong Kong, his mama and baba, and the lazy days he and his friends had, looking for pretty stones in the rivers and parks to trade with the pixies for more lessons.

Even now, despite the iron and silver alloy in his earrings (which were starting to burn after a week in- he should give himself a rest) warning off anything from coming too close, Yukhei sees the dryads near their trees, painting their flowers and leaves pretty for the long winter ahead. Water nymphs splash near the lake, and a youngling curiously pops their head up from the water, white pupils growing wide in surprise when he catches Yukhei looking. Yukhei smiles at them, and they giggle before diving back down, razor sharp scales cutting cleanly through the water, not a ripple left behind.

The youngling’s mother (parent?) glances at him curiously, a bit wary of the high potency of iron around him and his members. Yukhei had gifted everyone something of iron and silver, slowly, over the last few years with his hyungs. It brings more attention from the rest of the creatures dwelling in Seoul -iron went out of fashion decades ago- but also makes sure his members are safer than the average human. His people know how to protect their own, and Yukhei’s stated loud and clear than his family is off limits.

It’s less dangerous nowadays. Most of the stranger ones, the ones less human-like, that can’t pass, have gone back. Others stayed, for the humans or the technology or their life on earth. They’re usually kind, wanting to be left alone, already integrated into society, maybe even with a human family. But Yukhei would like to keep his members away from this part of him.

Still, he doesn’t want the nymph to worry (hunters have always caused his people fear), so Yukhei smiles gently at them, leans back on his hands on the picnic blanket Kun-ge had brought with him, and lets the sharpness of his teeth come out a bit more than usual, eyes burning with purple fire.

It’s barely there for a second, but the nymph smiles, lips turning up in understanding. She then makes bubbles using the vapour on the surface of the lake, a quick hand movement, face furrowed in focus, before floating them over to Yukhei.

Yukhei laughs, delighted, because these are just like what one of his friends can make (she’d always had more water than earth in her blood). It reminds him of home, the changing colours of the bubbles striking a chord within him, and briefly, Yukhei wishes to make flowers bloom (despite the quickly approaching winter).

He takes his eyes off the bubbles, turning back to thank the nymph, but they’re gone. He wonders why for a second, before a hand threads softly into his hair, Taeyong-hyung having come up behind him, attracted by his laughter.

“What’s gotten you so happy, baby?” he asks softly.

Yukhei grins back, pointing at the bubbles still in the air, a little ways from him now, still not popped.

Hyung makes a sound of surprise, sitting on the blanket and watching more closely. His action catches the attention of the rest of his hyungs, who all come nearby.

“Look at the colours, it’s a rainbow!” Johnny-hyung says excitedly as the other hyungs watch in amazement.  The commotion wakes up Mark and Haechan, who wake up to look at the bubbles as well.

Johnny hyung’s face brightens with childlike wonder, and Yukhei finds the comical look on his face so funny that he laughs. It bursts out, light and airy, and makes everyone else laugh too, which just makes the problem even worse because now Yukhei can’t stop.

His control slips for a second and faint silvery flush rises to his skin. Anxiety spikes in Yukhei’s chest. He checks his hyung’s reaction to see if they noticed, but they’re still laughing at Johnny hyung and so Yukhei quickly dims it.

Eventually the others end up in a cuddle pile on the blanket, on top of each other and limbs splayed. Him and Mark have been pushed to the side, kicked out of the blanket that they’ve “stolen” from the hyungs. Yukhei doesn’t mind, and neither does Mark, both sitting next to each other, silently watching the rest of the park.

A young dryad darts back to his tree, surprised by the sudden grouping of people, and Yukhei notices the slight movement Mark makes as if he’s trying to follow him. Yukhei pays it little mind. Areas with high concentration of his people tend to have weak spots in the Veil.

But the dryads would have noticed Mark’s attention. Yukhei doesn’t want to frighten them so he nudges his friend and smiles at him softly.

Mark turns back, starts telling Yukhei about a weird dream he’s just had, and the incident slips from Yukhei’s mind, forgotten in an instance.

He should have payed attention. That was the first sign.

* * *

They’re walking on a street, on the way to a Thai restaurant that Taeyong-hyung had found. He’d wanted to show it to Ten, who would always miss his home food. Yukhei’s looking forward to it as well. Thai food reminds him of his mum. Mark is trailing sleepily behind Yukhei while Haechan (who somehow gained the energy of a thousand puppies after his short nap) runs ahead of them.

Yukhei’s tall, even for his age, and so he doesn’t know he’s about to collide into anything until a few moments before it happens. He tried to swerve, but it’s too late, and a child runs full throttle into him. In his effort to avoid the kid Yukhei unbalanced himself so he goes down too.

Disorientated for a bit (hey, the fall was far) Yukhei immediately focuses when he glances at the child a few feet away from him, who’s blinking in surprise. He pulls up to his knees before checking if they’re all right.

His Korean is lacking but he asks if the kid’s is lost. They shake their head, so Yukhei helps them get up, dusting the dirt off of them, and then smooths out the flowers growing in their hair, checking for damage.

Yukhei hadn’t noticed that the child’s glamour had dropped partially during his fall, but it had. His hands make contact with real flowers and he feels the softness of petals rather than the texture of hair.

The flowers (blossoms- Yukhei senses) close their buds, scared of an outsider’s touch, and the child stares at Yukhei in fear, noting the high abundance of silver and iron on him and the rest of his members that had quickly congregated.

Yukhei grows concerned. They are still young, and even now Yukhei’s control slips when he’s frightened.

Glancing at the members, he moves closer to the child as if to check him for injuries, and then like before at the park drops his glamour, this time just around his face.

The youngling glances up at his eyes that burn with light just that shade right of unnatural, and at the tips of his ear which look just that little sharper. They relax, so Yukhei pulls his glamour back on and the kid becomes calm enough to do the same.

Then Yukhei smiles, gently asks if they’re alright now, and they smile back with teeth just a little too sharp, nodding before darting away, navigating the legs of his members before disappearing into the crowd.

Yukhei stands up and turns to his members, apologies spilling out as he stands still and lets Taeyong and Doyoung-hyung fuss over him, checking for injuries and inquiring after what happened.

He placates them, and they continue on their walk while Yukhei goes to walk alongside Mark, who’s standing still.

Yukhei prods his friend, “you okay?”

Mark snaps out of whatever he was in, turning to look at him.

“Did you find anything weird with that kid?”

Yukhei pauses. Even if the kid’s glamour fell, the Veil should still be up. There’s no weak spots anywhere nearby, so there’s no way that Mark could have seen anything.

“Not really, why?” he asks cautiously

Mark rubs his face with his hands, before shaking his head, looking up at Yukhei with a sheepish expression.

“I must be really tired. I don’t think I’ve woken up fully after the park. For a second it looked like he had flowers in his hair- but like, his hair was _made_ out of flowers.”

Mark laughs, “I’m probably just imagining things, right? It was only there for a bit.”

Yukhei’s blood freezes.

* * *

He doesn’t remember what he said after that, probably stuttering out an agreement, but now he’s walking alongside Mark behind his hyungs, valiantly trying to keep the panic that’s filling his chest at bay

The Veil hadn’t dropped. It wasn’t even weak. The only thing out of the normal was that the youngling’s glamour had fallen, and even then, it was just the physical one which only masks characteristics that were hard to explain. The Veil takes care of what humans see, but physical glamours make sure that when a human accidently touches one of them they don’t freak because instead of skin they’re met with ice or vines.

Yukhei however, wears two glamours for himself. Both a physical glamour and a sight one, because he can never be too careful with his members, and because it would be strange for others to see him alongside his members without one. The youngling was too little to have learned sight glamours yet, so the Veil had to make sure no humans saw anything strange.

But Mark had seen through it. And seen clearly as well, noticing the youngling’s flowers when in weak spots most humans would only see a haze.

Which means the Veil’s losing its effect on Mark.

Yukhei knew this would happen. His mama always told him about it, making sure that Yukhei was aware of any affect he would have on humans.

Repeated exposure to Yukhei meant that his members got used to the Veil, and more attuned to the forces that worked around them. Their presence would also become more real in the Other Side, because of their ties to Yukhei. Over time the Veil would become less effective and the rest of NCT would gain the Sight, which would mean they’d in the end be exposed to the rest of Yukhei’s world. By then he would have told them about himself.

But he hadn’t expected it to happen so soon.

It sort of makes sense that it’s Mark. The younger boy is one of the closest to him, and after Yukhei had debuted they’d spent even more time together. With the amount of times Yukhei had subtly used his abilities Mark would’ve gotten attuned much quicker.

But it’s too early to bring his members into his world. Slightly too dangerous, especially now. They’re at the end of year promotions and everyone is stressed, which is part of the reason they’d gone out today. Telling them about himself would make things much more complicated, and they might not even believe Yukhei until they’d become completely immune.

And that’s another problem in itself. Too many humans have gone mad when they started to gain the Sight, suddenly seeing the world that was hidden away from them in short instances and not knowing whether it was real or their imagination. The other option isn’t much better either. It would be too much to throw them into the deep end by Yukhei forcibly ripping away the Veil.

But Mark is starting to See, and if he is, then the rest of NCT is going to follow pretty soon. Which can’t happen so close to the end of year performances, and then WayV’s promotions. Yukhei needs to be there for his members when it happens-

“If they even accept him after they find out” a part of him whispers

-which means he has to make a decision soon.

And Yukhei doesn’t really know what to do.

So he keeps Marks attention away from anything that might pass through the Veil, and instead continues on the trip with his hyungs, pretends that everything is okay.

Maybe if he pretends enough it'll come true.

* * *

It's later when Yukhei thinks about it. There's power thrumming under his veins, wanting to be used after being neglected for so long, wanting out. A yearning in him, sometimes all consuming, where Yukhei misses the days when he could use his abilities to make flower crowns, coaxing the first buds of spring, breathing life into the environment around him.

The trees whisper stories in the night of the highborns and humans, the wind chatters all day, and the little animals all talk to themselves and others. Yukhei listens and learns. Of the mother sparrow near his dorm whose baby had taken their first flight, of the little lotus who'd lost his first flower, and of the little girl next door who'd just learnt her first trick, making fire dance in different shapes. 

But he keeps quiet. Does little. Wary of being found out.

Yukhei misses it, his half world where he doesn't truly belong but leaves a part of himself, and Yukhei some nights just wants to _be_.

So even if he doesn’t admit it, a small part of Yukhei is glad. It was getting tiring, constantly hiding a part of himself. And Mark is a good person. He didn’t mind any of Yukhei’s quirks or his happy nature, and was accepting of everyone, so maybe…

Maybe he should trust Mark. Not with all of it (all of him). But just the beginning…

**Author's Note:**

> You have no idea how badly I wanted to name “the Sight”, “the Vision”.  
> :D  
> Also just imagine Lucas being all soft and happy surrounded by his friends. I cri.


End file.
